The Haiphong Opera House is the city's most photographed building and its symbolic centre. Built between 1904 and 1912 in a French neo-classical style, with a yellow-and-white facade, a sweeping front staircase, and a heavy red-tile roof, it is a smaller and slightly less ornate sibling of the Hanoi Opera House.
It is still in use as a performance venue and as a public space for civic events; on warm evenings the steps fill with locals socialising, taking wedding photos, and selling balloons to children. The square in front was repaved in the 2010s and is now one of the more pleasant urban plazas in northern Vietnam. The interior is only open to ticketed audiences during performances.